Many types of rooftop bicycle carriers (or racks) require the front wheel of a bicycle be removed when mounting the bicycle on the carrier. The front wheel is typically stowed in the vehicle or is secured to the rooftop carrier using a separate fixture that clamps to the wheel at its axle. As can be appreciated, the wheel may be dirty, especially if the wheel is from a mountain bike, and putting a dirty wheel in the vehicle is often undesirable. The separate wheel fixtures that mount directly to the carrier are also often undesirable because they can be expensive and take up limited rooftop space that could otherwise be used to carry additional bicycles.
Several wheel holders have been proposed to secure the front wheel while the bicycle is being transported on a rooftop carrier. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,661 of Wolfe, a bracket is disclosed that is affixed to the rear dropout of a bicycle frame. When the bicycle is placed in the rooftop carrier, the axle of the front wheel is secured into a slot provided in the bracket by tightening the wheel's quick release mechanism. The bracket has several drawbacks. First, it is not easily removable from the bicycle and is intended to remain on the bicycle adding unnecessary weight. Second, since the front wheel is supported at the axle on only one side of the axle, the stress on the axle from the weight of the wheel and wind load during transport could cause damage to the axle and the wheel's hub.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,119 of Talbot, a wheel holder is disclosed that is secured onto the seatpost of a bicycle and includes an extension arm with spaced fingers extending therefrom. The fingers have slots formed in their distal ends and the slots are adapted to receive the axle of the bicycle's front wheel. The holder requires the use of a clamping mechanism to secure it to the seatpost. While Talbot clamping mechanism may be effective in attaching the holder to the bicycle's seatpost, it requires several interconnected moving parts that increase the total cost to produce the holder, especially when compared to a holder with an attachment mechanism that does not include interconnected moving parts. Further, since the fingers of the Talbot holder are shorter than the radius of the front wheel, the extension arm of the holder must be passed through the spokes of the intended bicycle wheel so that the spaced slots can be aligned with the ends of the wheel's axles. As can be appreciated, passing the extension arm through the spokes with the slotted fingers that extend perpendicularly therefrom can be awkward especially when the associated front wheel includes closely spaced spokes. Finally, the design of the Talbot holder requires the device to extend generally in a direction generally perpendicular to the bicycle. Given this configuration, the wheel and the end of the extension arm could interfere with the mounting of additional bicycles onto an associated rooftop carrier, especially when more than two bicycles are to be transported by a single carrier.